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Family
Background
My grandfather had a
good name in our village. He was a railway
employee since British Regime. Our family was well respected in
the village and my father had a good number of Christian friends
(as he told us). He alleges that he learnt ‘drinking’ with
Christians. My grandpa joined Radhaswami denomination of Hindu
philosophy approx. 40 years ago and since then our family has
never been into idol-worshipping. We had a very open upbringing
and thus were open to all faiths. Of course, my grandpa’s
faith in Radhaswami Satsang did not bring any good virtues to
him and neither to his son, my father.
I never found Papa (my father) a religious man (at least I
perceived him so). He only believed in social reformation. He had
started his career through MES (Millitary Engineering Services);
which later he switched to State Bank of India as clerical staff and was a
leader in Employees union. He had good ability of impressing
people with powerful speeches. He had an air around him
and probably this turned into sheer pride and arrogance later. I
remember that my father had almost became a alcoholic and would
pick a
fight with anyone anywhere. After getting drunk, he used to
beat us (including mummy) too. Our family was at a verge of
break. We had to leave our house often to take shelter in our
neighbor houses in the chilled nights of December and January.
We used to spend sleepless nights standing on our feet in front
of our father, trying to understand his un-understandable
mumbling. Every evening our hearts wanted to burst out waiting
our father to come home back from his office completely drunk
and still worst with a pack of whiskey or rum in his hands.
Every night passed was a milestone achieved. Our mummy was dying
every evening, every bit. We are two brothers and one sisters
and I am the eldest. Our performance in studies started
declining. We were a emotionally broken family. I got second division in
10th standard, a supplementary in 11th and failed once in 12th.
As I look back,
I saw a curse over our family which was yet to be broken. We did
not know how…
I was deserted by my close friend(s) in teenage, abused at home and
therefore I wanted to abuse the world. I started becoming
notorious. I went to
the college and stood in college-election for the post of Joint
Secretary. I lost it. We broke vehicles, stop the buses,
beat the drivers and even once I wanted to set a bus on fire,
but was stopped by few of my friends. There was a major
bus-strike in Jaipur because of me. I did not use to pay the
bus-fare. The bus conductor who asked for it was beaten up.
I never bothered about GOD and neither did I fear him.
God's intervention
While I came in final year of my graduation (BSc), some unknown
power started compelling me to retrospect my life and I realized
that I have been running into failures. I had 50% as the
aggregate of last two years of graduation. ‘What is the purpose
of my life’ was the biggest question in front of me. I wanted to
have a first division for which I calculated that I must get a
84% in third year. Again, this was a mountain. However, I
started studying by the compelling of an ‘unknown’ power. I had
almost completed my syllabus in half of the session. I started
solving problems for those who were toppers of our class till
previous year. Many of
my classmates stopped tuitions and asked me for help. I was ABLE
to help, I did not know who made me so. I trust, God was
preparing the ground.
Gospel shared
I had few problems in Numerical Physics and hence I joined a
tuition group. In this tuition group we had
only one girl. Her name was Rashmi, she belonged to a jat family. I wanted to make friendship
with her. I must admit that this was the place where God wanted
me to know him. One Sunday, when our tuition teacher wanted to
give an extra class, she refused to come. After much request,
she agreed to come after 1:00 PM. I asked her the reason for
being so rigid. She told me that she used to go to church and
cannot miss the Sunday service on any accounts. She said that
she believed in a ‘LIVING GOD’ who loves us and who has already
paid price for our sins. I was amazed to know that a hindu girl
believed in Jesus! Next day she gave me a GIDEONS bible as a
gift. I did not read this book for many days, however, due to
respect for religious book, I kept it safely in the house.
I did not want to read it, however,
my thirst to know God was initiated. I started analyzing all
religious scriptures, and when I did not find satisfying answers
from other books,
I started reading the Bible and realized
that it is truely the
word of God. God started talking
to me in mysterious way. He led me and taught me the secrets of
a successful, happy and peaceful life. He talked to me through
Titus 3:5 and John 3:16 (which is my favorite verse) about
salvation and in due time, this book changed the course of my
life. Now, It is my privilege to acknowledge the presence and
blessing of my Lord and master of my soul "Jesus Christ' who
saved me in July, 1998 in his grace. RASHMI (my sister in the
Lord) came into my life as God's messenger. Her actions and her
way of living the life impressed me. Her tender feelings and
compassion gave me a great urge to know more about the source of
her unselfishness. She gave me her time and satisfied all my
appetite of knowing the 'unknown’. The unknown was now known to
me. I praise Jesus that he chose me 'the sinner' and took full
interest in me. He bestowed me later with abundant blessings.
Experiencing power of prayers
Then, first time in my life, did I receive answer of my prayers.
Failures went away from me. I got 74% marks in final year. I
topped ‘Rajasthan PGDCA entrance exam’ in year 1998. I got
admission in three distinguished universities of India.
Actually, my father had given me a memorandum that if I failed
to get admission in all three of them he would cast me out of
his home. I was only preparing for one… BHU (Banaras Hindu
University) – MCA (Master of Computer Applications) course since
my primary interest was in computers. God’s plan was a little
different. He heard my prayers and I got through all India level
entrance of all three exams (BHU, Baroda University and Roorkee
University). God closed rest of the doors and took me to Roorkee
to do M.Tech from IIT, Roorkee (Indian Institute of Technology).
I did not have any church when I reached Roorkee and my only
GIDEON Bible encouraged me and kept me near God. As an
answer of my prayers, I got address of a Pentecostal church on a
piece of paper being swiped away in one of my non-Christian
friend’s room in the hostel. God used me here to share the ‘good
news’ with one of my classmates. Her name was Prerna. We shared
the same Gideon testament for our bible studies every evening 8
‘O’ clock in her hostel’s guest premises. She received Lord
Jesus as her personal savior and God bestowed numerous blessings
and answer to our prayers then on. Now I have her as my life
partner. We both have nice jobs in our hands and well to do
family. All the family problems were vanishing day by day. I sat
down and confessed all my sins to God and requested Jesus to
come in my life. I was forgiven, justified, reconciled and
saved.
God's promise
God talked to me (through Acts 16:31) that if I believed, my
family shall be saved. Since then, God’s spirit is at work. My
sister, my mother, my brother, my three cousins, my grandpa, one
cousin of Prerna and her complete maternal side are saved in
Christ. God enabled us to love my father despite his behavior
towards us. I was sure God will redeem him and save him in his
own time. We were continuously praying for my father, Prerna’s
mummy and brothers. We were sure they will be saved one day too.
Though Satan used to discourage us in various situations, but
the fires of oppression boosted our faith.
God's faithfulness
We including all our respected elder relatives, papa’s friends,
my mummy and we children tried to talk to our father. We tried
our best to show the living testimony through our lives and
loved our father, but he kept on growing in pride and
desolation. He was diagnosed diabetes and alcohol was
functioning as sweet poison for him. He kept on invalidating our
feelings and under very critical circumstances mummy left home
and came to me in Delhi. My father kept drinking and did not
have food for almost a month. He was hospitalized once and soon
after coming back from the hospital he started drinking. He
would never give it up. I got a news on 22nd March 2005 that my
father was serious and needed quick help. I knew that he would
not accept me until mummy went back to home. I did not want it
since she could not live with him. I was in a huge dilemma and
was pretty discouraged by the situation. I neither went to the
prayer meeting in the church that night nor did I turn up into
bible study. I was just upset. I started praying and God talked
to me from James 2:26 (“For as the body without the spirit is
dead, so faith without works is dead also.”). I knew God wanted
me to GO. I said, ‘Yes, Lord, If you wish, I will go”.
Throughout the way, I was getting absurd thoughts, but I rebuked
Satan. I kept on praying and reached home at 10 PM in the night.
My father was in literally bad shape. Holy spirit made me weep
over his situation and I hugged him. Suddenly God’s spirit came
upon me and touched my father through my very simple words of
request to believe in Jesus and leave alcohol.
He GAVE UP liquor
the very same moment. He was in despair. He used to abuse
Christianity. I shared with him from the Word of God; he
believed and got peace. He wanted to meet mummy. Brother
Rajkumar from my congregation came to Jaipur and we took my
father to Delhi on 23rd March. I promised him that he will be
alright in next 10 days. He debated over hundreds of issues in
Christianity and by the enabling of the Holy Spirit, I was able
to satisfy his intellectual mind with faithful words of the
Bible. Now, he wanted to go to Church. We went to DBF for Sunday
Service and Satan again brought some confusion in his mind. We
prayed and discussed again and then he trusted in Jesus Christ
completely.
After 10 days, as per our specific prayers, he was free of
alcohol and fag. His blood sugar came down to 200 from 469 in 2
days without insulin but prayers. His eye sight became almost
normal with glasses. He had put his trust in Jesus and was saved
by the 10th day. Now he is growing in his faith and has a vision
of winning souls for our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
God is good, all the time
God has been so much merciful, trustworthy and faithful to work
wonders in our lives. We are encouraged by this incident and my
personal faith in Jesus has increased by leap and bounds. He
stands firm on his promises and fulfills them. He has been using
us in various ways for his glory. Jesus has made us instrumental
in winning souls for him through social work in slums and
kachchi Basti of Delhi by our ‘Shanti Marg’ ministry. We gifted
Gideon New Testaments to every person who come to our home, be it
water supplier, maid, postman, painter, friends, colleagues,
relatives etc. We would share our personal testimonies with every
person we met and gifted a Gideon New Testament to everyone and
anyone we may reach. I encourage you to keep your life tuned
with God and you will see his abundant blessings in your life.
Now God has led us
to UAE. We are doing absolutely fine in the grace of God at all
fronts including finances, professional life, friend-circle,
family-life, spiritual aspect .... all. We have peace, joy, love
and success from God in all the spheres of our lives. We praise
God every day for his goodness, with every breath.Halleluyah!
If you have found my life-transformation story good enough to encourage you,
read detailed testimony in the form of
book and/or please feel free to communicate with me at
chorotia@gmail.com.
I am also available on :
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